It’s not like the assholes in Massachusetts wouldn’t re-elect the little fop. Anyone with the last name of Kennedy and Kerry is a shoe-in, as well.
Longtime Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., announced Monday he is not seeking re-election, saying that redistricting has made it too strenuous to continue to campaign.
The 16-term lawmaker, whose name is emblazoned on the banking reform law that passed Congress last year, had long been rumored to be ready for retirement. He said Monday that he actually decided “tentatively” to retire after passage of the law, serving out one more term, but when Republicans won the 2010 midterm he decided he didn’t want to be a lame duck so didn’t announce his plans until now.
……Frank was previously chairman of the House Financial Services Committee but is now ranking member since Democrats lost the majority in the 2010 midterm election. The Dodd-Frank law, a contentious set of provisions that Republicans say add layers of regulatory burdens without preventing potential future meltdowns, was made in response to the near collapse of the banking industry in 2008. Among other actions, it created a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to oversee access to banking products and required listing ratios of executive pay to median employee salaries.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/28/barney-frank-to-announce-retirement/
He said he was “surprised” that the Dem-created Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Frankenstein collapsed, blaming the failure on Tom Delay.
“I, like many others, did not see the crisis coming,” he said, going into a long disposition about how in 2005 he did try to get legislation passed to prevent unqualified homeowners from getting loans, but was stopped by then-House Majority Leader Tom Delay, R-Texas.
Nice try, Frank. No dice. Barney conveniently forgets that the Republicans tried to pull in the reins on the lending disaster, but the Dems denied there was any problem and stopped the attempted regulation in its tracks.
Barney’s legacy: The so-called “Bank Reform Act” was another abuse of power by the former Dem-controlled Congress. Not satisfied with the unconstitutional power grabs by the Dem majority, Frank told a gathering of Young Democrats that he thought the government should have all the authority it wants. He also wanted to make it easier for the government to takeover businesses. Frank, ever the in-your-face fudgepacker, slept with Fannie Mae executive Herb Moses, while pushing Congress to deregulate Fannie Mae.
He also ran a male prostitution ring out of his home, with the help of public funds.
In 1991, Barney Frank received an official reprimand for reflecting “discredit upon the House.” The reprimand came as a result of his relationship with a man named Steve Gobi, a male prostitute whom Frank initially paid $80 for sex. Frank later took Gobi to live with him in his home, making him a personal aide. He paid him $20,000 in compensation (unreported to the IRS) and let him use his car. Subsequent investigation revealed that in the course of their relationship, Frank used his congressional office and stationary to fix Gobi’s 33 parking fines. Frank also used his congressional letterhead to write a reference letter to Gobi’s probation officer — Gobi was under court supervision as a convicted felon with a prison record — in which he gave false information. Most damningly, the investigation found that Gobi ran a prostitution ring from Frank’s home. In his defense, Frank asserted he knew nothing of Gobi’s illicit enterprise.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/who_is_barney_frank.html
Frank is quite the anti-military hack:
“[I]f we do not make reductions approximating 25 percent of the military budget starting fairly soon, it will be impossible to continue to fund an adequate level of domestic activity even with a repeal of Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy.”
‘Domestic activity’, like the bloated welfare state, pork, and wasteful earmarks.
Good riddance, Frank. Now that you’re finished with doing your part in the destruction of America’s economy, you can go back to running a prostitution ring.